On Thursday we welcomed our new intake of Adult beginners to their first session, where they got off to a great start going through some basics. Wonderful to meet everyone, well done for taking that first step, and we're looking forward to getting to know you better over the next 3-months and into the future. 👏

These are our 7th group of adults to go through this 12-week program, and down at the other end of the mat, several graduates of our previous courses were focusing hard at their training as they continue forward towards that black belt goal. 🥋

Last week we took a break from our normal activities and gave our Kids Coaches the week off. Instead we held our annual Summer training sessions, running from 10am-3:30pm for 3 days, we enjoyed a mix of Fitness, Games, Technical Training, Randori & some Judo adjacent mental challenges. (Along with ice pops & gingerbread men 🤣)

Assisting Sensei Jad for the week, we welcomed club alumni, Kristian & Ryan Hill who did a brilliant job leading the Technical sessions, targeting basic techniques for all ages in attendance, and stepping up the level for our more experienced members. They were joined by another alumni, George Rowson, who gave some insights on how certain techniques can safely be adapted for the youngest competitors. With Kristian & George mixing in for the Randori our members got the chance to try out their skills with players who regularly compete internationally, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

Additional session support came from Club Coaches Chloe & Stratty, with Adam O & Freya, visiting back from university, all ably assisted by young helpers, Arthur L, Lindsay, Jake & Dan O.

Thank you everyone for an absolutely fantastic week! 😃

Something for the Seniors, being held at our Dojo...
Saturday 10th Oct, an afternoon training session for Veterans (o30s)
Sunday 11th Oct, a Ne-waza (groundwork only) competition for o16s.
More details in the attached post.

This past weekend saw Sensei Jad, along with Samuel, Marcin, Bill & Jacob (& Daniel) head up to Warwickshire in order to deliver 13 judo tasters to a range of ages at the Festival of Sport.
From the initial ad-hoc enquiries on Friday afternoon thru the formal sessions of Saturday & Sunday we worked with almost 200 children & introduced them to some judo basics. With each group we covered a few fun animal moves, Ukemi, a Throw & a Hold, and even had time to play a quick game.
It was tiring, exceptionally hot (full sun all weekend)l & continuous hard work - Yet it was an AMAZING weekend, and we were absolutely delighted to have been asked to lead the sessions.
@festivalsportuk #BritishJudo #BritishJudoCouncil

Well done to the small squad of club members who took part in the Shizentai Kata competition today, a great opportunity to demonstrate the hard work everyone's been doing.

🥇 Stratty & Alex - Senior Nage-no-kata
🥇John & Richard - Senior Itsutsu-no-kata
🥇Finn & Emily - Junior Nage-no-kata
🥉Emily & Finn - Junior Katame-no-kata

Also, well done to club member Patrick & his partner who were competing under Shizentai, who took Gold in the Junior Katame-no-kata

As always we've come away with more to work on as we prepare for the next event, but excellent efforts from everyone with improvements shining through for all pairs. 👍

On Sunday a large squad headed to Hatfield for the Shizentai Rumble.
Always an excellently run event & this year was no different, huge thanks to Shizentai Judo Club, and all the officials & supporters who helped make the event a great success.

We finished up with 41 competitors on the day, from the tiniest of our 5 year old dragons, through to a couple of our "slightly" older adults 😃

Everyone fought hard, and showed excellent determination and spirit. For several people this was their very first event, or their first in a new age band - really pleased to see how well people are progressing at all ages. 👍

(Participation)🏅 - Caelan & Anna - Excellent performances, but in larger groups meant unfortunately no placing today for these.
(Bronze) 🥉 - Elsie, Wan Yu, Emma, Marni, Maya, Asher, William S, Zachary, Finn, Sebastian, Jonathan, Thomas, Alexander, Tomas, Alfred, Barrack, Reuben, William B, Eryk, Lawrence, Vitorio, Lena, Isla D, Jaidan
(Sliver) 🥈 - Melina, Valerie, Meadow, Bethany, Elisa, Max, Grayson, Daniel, Adam, Theo
(Gold) 🥇- Emily, Danae, Lorcan, Darius, Elijah

Many thanks as always to my admin team for logging everything, to Steve J for his coaching support through out the morning, and to all the kids & parents for supporting everyone so well, 👏
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A couple of our primaries appear to have escaped the photo call, and we completely missed getting a photo of our over 16s! (Sorry guys!)